Possible first party developers for Nintendo

      This is a topic I've been thinking for quite a while. As you all know, Nintendo has released their brand new home console, the Nintendo Wii U, just a few months ago. The Wii U is Nintendo's first step into the HD realm. What does that mean? That means games will take longer to develop which explains why Nintendo is teaming up with other developers so they can speed up the development, as stated in their latest Nintendo Direct. But teaming up with other developers isn't the only thing they need to do. Nintendo will need more first party developers like the EAD teams, Retro Studios, Monolith Soft, etc. They can either found new studios or buy existing studios (Like what they did with Monolith Soft). Since I can't guess what studios they will found, I'll focus on the existing developers. This is not a countdown, remember that. This a list of possible developers Nintendo can acquire. These are based on rumors or preferences or both. So I will start with the first one.


RARE Ltd. 

     I'll say it right away, I do NOT want Nintendo to acquire Rare Ltd. I know this might sound shocking, especially if you are a kid who grew up in the 90s when Rare (Or should I say Rareware) were still producing excellent AAA games but please understand I have my reasons why I don't want Nintendo to buy them back. Let's start with the reason why I decided to put Rare Ltd. on the list. You see, a while ago, there was a rumor suggesting that Nintendo was considering buying Rare back. Then, around the same time, another rumor showed up saying Nintendo is negotiating with Microsoft so they can bring back Banjo Kazooie. It even claimed Retro Studios was developing the new Banjo Kazooie. These are all rumors, of course. Even if it was possible for Nintendo to buy Rare back, I would not want them to do so for a reason. You see, a lot of people think Rare will magically turn into its awesome former self, making amazing AAA games all over again. Well, the truth is that the modern Rare is nothing more than a shell of its former self. A lot of people who used to work at Rareware back in their glorious days have moved to other studios after Microsoft bought them. Then, you have the fact that Tim and Chris Stampers (The founders of Rareware) left Rare Ltd. This is why I don't want Nintendo to buy Rare back, they're not worth it anymore.

SHIN'EN

     Now for a developer I actually care for. Shin'En might be one of the lesser known developers on this list. But that doesn't mean they aren't awesome. Unlike the previously mentioned Rare, I'm putting Shin'En on the list because they have potential to become a Nintendo developer. I first discovered Shin'En with a demo of a little game called Jett Rocket (An excellent WiiWare title) back in 2011. After that playing the demo for that game, I realized that Shin'En was a fantastic developer and decided to buy their next game, Fast Racing League which even, to this day, is my favorite WiiWare game. After that, I noticed a few things. Much like most first party Nintendo developers, Shin'En games were very polished. Second, after playing Fast Racing League, I realized that they had a LOT of potential to develop the next F-Zero. Also, after doing a little research, I discovered that every single one of their games were made for Nintendo systems. All these qualities can make Shin'En a potential Nintendo first party developer. Plus, if they become Nintendo first party developers, they might get more recognition from people.

SEGA

     You read that right. It's SEGA, the biggest and most fearsome rival Nintendo ever had. With all the doom and gloom stuff surrounding SEGA and its financial status, many people speculate that maybe a company like Microsoft or Sony or, in this case, Nintendo are going to buy SEGA and save them from whatever problem they're in. So, what could SEGA bring to Nintendo. TONS OF SERIES! We all know SEGA keeps making new series, most of which are targeted to the hardcore audience and with Nintendo having SEGA on their side will eliminate the one of the Nintendo haters' most overused argument that Nintendo is for kids. Not only that but the games lineup will increase drastically. Though, considering how big SEGA is, that would cost Nintendo a crap ton of money.

Platinum Games

     Here's one Nintendo fans want to have, Platinum Games. Ever since the announcement of The Wonderful 101 at E3 2012 (Known as Project P-100 at the time), people have speculated that Nintendo should buy Platinum Games because they are co-developing said game. Flash forward to September 2012 and Nintendo announces that Bayonetta 2 will be a Wii U exclusive funded and published by Nintendo. This further kept the rumor train going. The interesting part is that Hideki Kamiya, an important figure at Platinum Games, is willing to develop Nintendo franchises like StarFox. Given the fact that Platinum Games are quite a small studio, this means it will be easy for Nintendo to buy them if they want to. Not to mention, much like SEGA, Platinum Games could bring ''hardcore'' games to Nintendo and further destroy the arguments used by Nintendo haters claiming Nintendo does nothing more that ''kiddy and casual games''. They could bring action games like Bayonetta, which Nintendo lacks and even third person shooters like Vanquish. 

Atlus

   Oh boy, this one is the hot topic right now. Nintendo buying Atlus. Let me make this long story short. Atlus is owned by Index Corporation who owns several different companies, they got caught doing shady stuff and they're also in a bad financial situation and they are going to sell some of their companies, like Atlus. Ever since this news appeared on the inter webs, rumors started spreading that Nintendo is one of the companies interested in buying Atlus. And with Nintendo being richer than Sony and Microsoft's gaming division, this makes Nintendo a likely candidate in buying Atlus, that is if the rumors are indeed true. But with Nintendo having a very close relationship with Atlus, having crossovers and promotions with Nintendo's Fire Emblem series, it wouldn't be surprising Nintendo jumped in to save them. This news is extremely hot at the moment so we'll wait and see how this whole situation turns out.

   That's about it for this article. Please, apologize my ignorance.

Ideas for the next Star Fox game

  While a new Star Fox has yet to be announced, we can assume there will be at least one coming out this generation since Miayamoto himself wants to make one. That's saying something. And since I like discussing about games before they come out, I thought it would be great to talk about one of the games that seriously need to make a come back. There tons of great ideas I want to see in the next Star Fox games and that's what this article is all about. With that said, let's start with the first and most obvious one.

Online Multiplayer


     Like I said before, this is obvious. A big part of what made Star Fox 64 AND Assault fun was the multiplayer mode. Being able to play against three of your friends and taking down their Arwing, that may be simple, but it was fun as hell. But with online multiplayer could expand the awesomeness of the multiplayer mode given you'll be able to play with (Or against) people from all over the world when your friends aren't available. Also, it can allow for more players in a match rather than just four. Online modes can be Death Match and Team Death Match (And if you can do more, good). And of course, we'll be able to play as characters from the Star Fox team, Wolf's team and even Bill's team. But don't limit yourself to only characters from Star Fox 64. You have the Cloud Runners too, you know and it would be cool if we saw more characters from other series too (Samus and Pit anyone?). Heck, why not have a character editor so we can make our own characters? Also, don't get limited to just Arwing battles. Do something similar to Assault where you could go in your Arwing or use the Land Master whenever you want to use them. Oh, and make maps big enough. The online alone will make the next Star Fox worth the wait. Oh, and a ranking system would be really nice. 

More Power-ups and Weapons

         In the past couple of Star Fox games we had (The rail shooting ones) we had power-ups. The Twin Beam power-up, the Hyper Beam power-up and Smart Bombs were all power-ups we could use in the last Star Fox games. But now, we need more. More beam variety, more power-ups and upgrades because, while it won't change the gameplay dramatically, it will certainly be a lot better to have more than have less. Here are a few ideas I had. You can seeker beams. Yes, we had this sort of feature in Star Fox 64 but what I am talking here is Metroid Prime 3 style of seeker beams (Actually, in Metroid Prime 3, they were missiles but whatever) where you can lock on to several enemies at once and then release it to destroy every single of them. Than you can have flame throwers (Yes, flame throwers) for close range attacks. Another idea I had that I found interesting was the inclusion of upgrades. For example, you can't boost for a very long time but, if you upgrade your boost, you will be able to boost for longer period of time and you will go faster. You can also improve your ship's durability, your beam's power, etc.

Commands

      Since I'm hopeful that StarFox is going to come back from the dead someday and that the new game may come to the Wii U, I've been thinking about how the game could utilize the Wii U GamePad. Thankfully, I have an idea which will get rid of a problem people had with previous, On-Rail StarFox games: Slippy. On your GamePad, you will have a couple of commands. Here are some examples: Follow Me (Select one or all members of the StarFox team to follow you), Attack (Order one of your buddies to take down an enemy, like the ones constantly go after Slippy), Disperse (The members of StarFox who follow you will go on their own). Properly using this mechanic will make helping Slippy a breeze.

Foot Missions

    Ever since games like StarFox Adventures and StarFox Assault were released, fans of the original and N64 games were very clear that what they want is Fox to stay in his Arwing and not do missions on-foot. While I can understand the reasoning, I sort of have to disagree. Personally, I think having only the aerial gameplay isn't a good thing because it will be a step back from Assault which introduced on-foot gameplay, Land Master gameplay and Arwing gameplay. While you could say the Assault on-foot gameplay was half-assed, we need some sort of variety, not just the Arwing gameplay. Plus, StarFox can do something along the lines of Sin & Punishment for the on-foot missions in which the game is still on-rails but you are now controlling Fox. We don't need the game to be 50% Arwing and 50% on-foot, we just need enough land missions for the gameplay to be varied.

     That about does it for the new ideas for the next StarFox game. You see, there is quite a lot of new things we can introduce to the series. So far, I don't have any other ideas for a new StarFox game but if you do, please share your ideas. Here's hoping the anthropomorphic spacial mammal makes a comeback on the Nintendo Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS.